May 1, 2016 Booklist 11 #mysterymonthto find the killer of a detested author ofthe most saccharine of fairy tales.Murder may have no boundaries, butit’s no match for the most interestingwomen in the world.

KAITE’S PICKS

loving look at our primate penchant forendlessly writing it all down, as thoughit made sense. Brazil’s another place I’venever been.

No, I’ve spent my life here on the Pacific
Northwest coast. Yet Stanley Evans’ wonderful series featuring Salish detective Silas
Seaweed (beginning with Seaweed on the
Street, 2005) makes me wonder if I’ve ever
really known this place. I stumbled upon
Silas in one of Victoria, B.C.’s many great
bookshops, delighted to find the northwest coastal version of Tony Hillerman.
These books combine the gritty realities of
indigenous people in the city with striking
Northwest myth and legend. Nothing else
is quite like them: they make me feel like a
world traveler, right here at home.

GLOBAL WOMEN OF MYSTERYBy Kaite Mediatore Stover

Readers have been gobbling far more mysteries with worldwide locations ever since that girl’s dragon tattoo
appeared on the scene. Solving murders
isn’t easy in any setting. For some international female investigators, their countries
or cultures can make it near impossible,
but that doesn’t stop them from the universal urge to right wrongs and speak for
the dead.

At first glance, Zoe Ferraris’
Finding Nouf appears to be a debut mystery
about Palestinian orphan Nayir, a desert
guide, but the secret sleuth is Katya
Hijazi, a highly educated Saudi woman
working in the coroner’s lab. Her careful observations of the dead woman’s
body, her knowledge of the secret lives of
wealthy Saudi women, and her advanced
degrees both help and hinder Katya’s
efforts to uncover Nouf’s killer. The murderer’s reasons for killing Nouf might be
considered clichéd in an American crime
novel, but this gripping literary mystery
presents an ancient world struggling
to adapt to modern times, and Nouf’s
death is a breaking point.

From the sweltering Arabian desert tothe icy Norwegian mountains, murdermoves easily between continents. Inher fifth outing, re-tired police inspectorHanne Wilhelmsen,in Anne Holt’s 1222,is reluctantly pulledback when her trainderails at the titular1,222 feet above sealevel. Paralyzed froma bullet to the spine,Hanne is locked inher wheelchair, lockedin a hotel, and lockedin with a derangedkiller. Hanne isstill bitter about herphysical limitationsand doesn’t give twosnowflakes for her fel-low passengers. Still,she’s slowly drawn to quietly solvingthe crime, if for no other reason than tokeep her snowbound mates quiet andherself from killing them.Petra Delicado, the sophisticated,rigid rookie partner to Fermin Garzon,would sympathize with Hanne. In AliciaGimenez-Bartlett’s Dog Day, Petra andFermin are investigating a violent dog-selling ring. Aloof Petra immediatelybonds with a dog named Freaky andcasts a cool eye on Freaky’s dead formerowner and canine hustler. This is a Bar-celona with a sordid underbelly, one thesensitive Fermin would rather avoid andPetra barely notices in her single-mindedsearch for the criminals.The newest member of Tokyo’s Homi-cide Division, Reiko Himekawa, facessituations similar to Petra’s. Young, politi-cally unconnected, and facing gender andage bias from her coworkers, Reiko hasonly her fearlessness and gut instincts tohelp her find a serial killer stalking theneon grit of Tokyo. She is determined tospeak for The Silent Dead, no matter whatthe personal cost.Precious Ramotswe and Phyrne Fisherface all their challenges with an unhurriedaplomb and uncanny understanding ofhuman nature. In Ramotswe’s native Bo-tswana, there’s precious few mysteries andmisunderstandings that can’t be cured,solved, or soothed during Tea Time for theTraditionally Built. Ramotswe’s conun-drums are simple ones: a recalcitrant van,a fiendish typing-school rival, a losingsoccer team with a befuddled owner. GivePrecious a cup of tea and some quiet time,and watch all the threads untangle.

Australian Jazz Age amateur sleuth
and aristocrat Phryne Fisher coats her
steely inner strength and razor-sharp
intelligence with the trappings and reckless behavior of the carefree wealthy.
Her wealth and progressive lifestyle may
afford Phryne the ability to shrug off
detractors, but it only goes so far when
her Chinese lover is kidnapped and ransomed. It’s of no help at all when Phryne
goes Away with the Fairies as an undercover columnist at a women’s magazine